The Bromley Union workhouse opened at Locks Bottom on 13th March 1845. The administration building, at the west of
the site, was connected to an accommodation
block at the rear by a central corridor. A third block lay
parallel to these two and more blocks were added later to the north
and
east.

By 1873 the workhouse could hold 420 inmates. In 1898 a female
infirmary was built.

In 1907, the nursing staff consisted of a
Superintendent Nurse and 8 nurses, a night lunatic attendant, a male
imbecile attendant and a female imbecile attendant.

The workhouse had become severely overcrowded by 1910. The 694 inmates were
mostly elderly, chronically or mentally ill, or children (at
one time, of 426 inmates only 23 had been able-bodied). Two extra
wards were built to accommodate the sick.

By 1923 two doctors were employed, while the nursing staff consisted of
a Superintendent Nurse, an Assistant Superintendent Nurse, a Night
Sister, 4 Ward Sisters, 2 Staff Nurses and 20 Probationers. In
1924 the infirmary had 201 beds. In 1925, it also had
accommodation for 66 mental patients (although none occupied the padded
cells).

By 1927 the workhouse and infirmary had become a hospital in all
but name. Although it had no Out-Patients or Casualty
Department, it was the only sizeable hospital between Lewisham and
Tunbridge Wells. As the number of motor vehicles increased, so
did the
numbers of victims of road traffic accidents requiring treatment.
The Ministry of Health asked the Board of Guardians to provide
additional medical staff, but this was strenuously resisted on
financial grounds.

The institution had no electricity and was lit by gas and portable
paraffin lamps. The operating theatre, known as the 'greenhouse',
was heated by a gas fire, which had to be extinguished before
anaesthesia was given to the patient. Patients needing X-ray
examination were referred to the Bromley Cottage Hospital, although occasionally a portable X-ray company was called in if a patient could not be moved.

In 1929 electricity was installed and two new medical blocks were
completed. However, as Poor Law institutions were not allowed to
refuse admission, the wards remained overcrowded, with beds in the
centre of the rooms or even along the corridors.

In 1930, following the abolition of the Boards of Guardians of the Poor, management of the workhouse
and infirmary was taken over by the Public Assistance Committee of Kent
County Council. At this time the institution was considered to be
the best Poor Law hospital in the county. It had 445 beds.

Plans were made to improve and develop the site. Lifts were
installed, so that patients no longer had to be carried on stretchers
up and down the stairs. The resident medical staff was increased
to six. A new wing was completed in 1936, when the
institution was renamed the Farnborough County Hospital. It
had 811 beds.

In 1938 the weekly cost of an in-patient was £2 8s 4d (£2.42).

At the outbreak of WW2 in 1939, the Hospital joined the Emergency Medical Service
(EMS) as the Farnborough Emergency Hospital under the control of
Guy's Hospital.
Marquees were erected to temporarily
provide extra accommodation for anticipated air-raid
casualties while 12 wooden hutted wards were being built where once had
been gardens and orchards. The Hospital then had 1,200 beds.
It received casualties from Dunkirk and also injured airmen
during the Battle of Britain.

A Maternity Unit opened in 1940, with 16 antenatal beds (in one large
ward) and 50 lying-in beds. The lying-in unit was on two floors
and consisted of 12 single and 19 double rooms. There was a
small block with 4 rooms for obstetric cases and a similar Isolation
Block for suspect and septic patients. The latter was
self-contained with its own Labour Ward and Sterilizing Unit.
The babies were accommodated in two main general nurseries.
There was also a Premature Baby Unit with 10 cots.

After the war, the 400 medical and nursing staff from Guy's Hospital
returned to London, resulting in five wards having to be closed due to
staff shortages.

In 1948 the Hospital joined the NHS under the control of the Orpington and Sevenoaks Group
Hospital Management Committee, part of the South East Metropolitan
Regional Health Authority. It was renamed Farnborough General
Hospital and had 831 beds (not all of which were open because of
staffing shortages).

By 1954 it had 657 staffed beds.

A new operating theatre suite was opened in November 1956 by R.H.
Turton, the Minister of Health. It had cost £45,000.

The Hospital at this time had a nominal bed complement of 800, but the
average occupancy was 650. The buildings - of many dates and
styles - were detached and scattered over a considerable area.
Some patients were accommodated in 2-storey brick buildings
and some in the EMS hutted wards on either side of an enclosed
corridor. The four largest hutted wards needed urgent replacement.

The Hospital had two kitchens - the main one in a brick building and
the second one in an EMS hut, known as the Pavilion kitchen.
Some 870 midday meals were made in the main kitchen, while the
Pavilion kitchen prepared 330 meals (for patients, not staff).

The old workhouse isolation block was used by Central Stores, but it
was in a isolated position and had been broken into on many occasions.

The Hospital employed three gardeners to look after the extensive
grounds, but an outside contractor took care of the lawns, at a cost of
£1,300 a year.

In 1961 some 45 beds had to be closed because of staff shortage, but
these were spread over the Hospital, so that no ward closures were
necessary. The operating theatre also had to close temporarily due to lack of trained theatre nurses.

In 1966, when the Hospital had 705 beds (60 of which were closed due to
lack of staff), some 30-50% of junior grade doctors were from overseas.
It had also proved difficult to recruit nursing, domestic and
ancillary staff.

Nonetheless, a new Gynaecological Unit opened, consisting of two
14-bedded wards, each with a 2-bedded side ward and one private and one
amenity bed.

A new Hall and Social Club were also built and the old Hall converted
into a Nurses' Home, for those who had lived in Oakwood Hostel in the
Hospital grounds. The Hostel in turn was then converted into
accommodation for the resident medical staff.

In 1967, when the Hospital had 705 beds, it cost just over
£850,000 a year to run. An extension to the Department of
Psychiatry was opened by Lady Norman, C.B.E.

In June 1968 a new isolation ward with 17 beds was completed at a cost of
£98,000 but could not be opened because of a shortage of trained
nursing staff. (It remained unopened over a year later.)

In 1974, following a major reorganisation of the NHS, the Hospital came
under the control of the Bromley District Health Authority, part of the
South East Thames Regional Heath Authority.

In the early 1970s plans were made to upgrade the Hospital to a
District General Hospital with 650 beds to serve its catchment area and
also that of Orpington Hospital, which would then close.

In 1978 the Hospital had 603 beds, mainly for acute patients.

By 1980 there were 560 beds and, in 1985, 543.

In 1990 the bed complement was 520.

With the introduction of the 'marketplace' system of provider and
supplier in the early 1990s, the Hospital came under the control of
Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust. In 1995 it was decided to redevelop
the site and build a new acute hospital under a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme.

The old Hospital closed in 1998.

Present
status (July 2008)

The buildings were demolished after the new £155m PFI-built Princess Royal University Hospital had been erected on the eastern part of the site. This opened on 1st April 2003 and is now known colloquially by its acronym - 'the Pruh'.

The site of the original Hospital now
contains new housing, including sheltered housing, and parking lots.
Only the workhouse chapel remains.

The main entrance for the Princess Royal University Hospital is
signposted from Farnborough Common. New housing has been built on Barkway Drive on
the southern part of the site of the old Hospital.
The main drive to the Hospital.

The main entrance.

The north side of the PRUH (above and below).

The Alan Cummings Day Surgery Unit.

Green Parks House provides mental health care and is run by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.
The workhouse chapel at the south of the site was converted in July 2008 and its bell restored. It is now the Primrose Centre, which finally opened in 2011 to provide support and complementary therapy for women with breast cancer.

Summerlands Lodge (sheltered housing) along Farnborough Common and Wellbrook Road (above and below).